Hermit Park

Hermit Park, a residential suburb, is two km south-west of central Townsville and positioned between the Charters Towers Road and Ross Creek. When the area was subdivided in the 1880s it was considered to be remote from the main areas of activity, central Townsville and Ross Island (now South Townsville). Its remoteness led to it being dubbed Hermit Park.

The access way to Ross Island was Queens Road, made more passable when a stone causeway was built across the Ross Creek wetland. By 1886 the Hermit Park and Causeway Hotels were opened. In 1902 St Matthew's Anglican church in Queens Road was built, and the gradual urban growth amounted to 432 houses when Hermit Park was transferred from Thuringowa Shire to Townsville City in 1918.

Urbanisation proceeded during the 1920s, with the Catholic St Joseph school opening in Norris Street in 1924 and the Hermit Park State primary school also opening in 1924, but across Charters Towers Road in Hyde Park. (St Joseph's school was moved to Mundingburra in 1936.) The post office directory (1949) recorded the Regent and Rising Sun Cinemas in Charters Towers Road. Hermit Park was completely built up, and Rosslea to the south was undergoing subdivision. The only areas left were wetlands, later recovered for sports fields north of the old causeway and for the Bicentennial Park to the south.

In the 1970s Hermit Park was classified as a low socio-economic area. By the 2001 census its resident income was about equal to the average for greater Townsville and higher than most of the western suburbs. The shopping area along Charters Towers Road was refurbished in the early 2000s.